Romantic Country Cottage - Cottage Rental Listing Details

This idyllic little house, with its tranquil views of gently rolling countryside is in the heart of rural Brittany. Perfect for exploring Le Mont St. Michel, mediaeval Dinan, nearby sandy beaches and colourful market towns.

Orchard Cottage offers high quality comforts and dreamy decor that transports you back in time.

Designed with the perfect French holiday in mind, Orchard cottage has everything you could wish for: a wood burning stove and comfortable seating for romantic fireside evenings, TV and video, a big cosy bed with beautiful linen, and a complete new kitchen, which is fully equipped (including microwave), whether you want to prepare spectacular meals or just warm your morning croissants and brew fresh coffee.

The bathroom has a bath with shower and is ideal for candlelit evening bathing or invigorating morning showers.

Outdoors there is a lovely private garden with wonderful views across miles of unspoilt rolling countryside and a furnished terrace with a Mexican barbecue.

Surrounding Area:

VIEUX VIEL AND THE SURROUNDING AREA

Vieux Viel is a beautiful, tranquil bourg near the Normandy border of Brittany. It is calm and peaceful. Not a single major road passes through it, and cars are not common. Le Moulin de Launay and Les Hougaudieres are both a mile from the village centre. We are fortunate in that the village has a good bar which doubles as the village shop. This means that you can buy groceries whenever the bar is open. Opposite you can buy farm eggs and milk from Jeannine.

The village of Trans-la-Forêt is also just over a mile away and has a Post Office, bakery, bar and corner-shop. Our nearest large supermarket is 4 miles away on the road to Pontorson.

Within minutes is the magical Villecartier forest which has beautiful walks, boating, fishing and a lakeside restaurant.

Although Vieux Viel is a quiet, calm place, it is central to many of this area's attractions. Around the bay of the Mont St. Michel and north along the Normandy coastline, there are excellent places for horse-riding or sand-yachting; good walks through the Polders, views of the Mont St. Michel towering in the distance or shimmering, as if floating on the water. Further round in Normandy there are superb beaches, backed by restaurants and bars. There are fishing ports, such as Granville, and towns of modern historical interest where roads and squares dedicated to General Patton, Charles de Gaulle and Montgomery are a reminder of the fierce fighting 50 years ago.

Further back in time the conflicts between the Gallic Bretons and the French have left their mark. The towns of Fougères, Vitré and Châteaubriand are fortresses to this day, with well-preserved town walls, moats and castles. Dinan and Vitré vie with each other for the position of best-preserved mediaeval town in the area, and Saint Malo with its astonishing walled old-town (flattened during the war and rebuilt as-was), is a wonder in itself.

Between St Malo and Cancale the coast is rugged and beautiful. Cancale itself is the centre of seafood cuisine in France and provides thousands of tons of mussels, oysters and other shellfish for the rest of the country. It is a place of genuine charm.

There is plenty to see and do here. Temporary membership at the local club can be arranged at Château des Ormes. You can use the gym, heated pool, Aqua-park or play cricket, tennis or golf. On most days one of the neighbouring towns will be having a market, where most people still shop. Combourg (Monday morning), Dol-de-Bretagne (Saturday morning) and Pontorson (Wednesday morning) are our favourites. There are zoos here, and paintball. There is a nature reserve and numerous "dépôt-ventes" (bric-a-brac shops), and of course, this is France, so there are restaurants catering for all budgets, serving up excellent food.

The Captial of Brittany, Rennes, has a fantastic market, reputedly the best outside Paris (Saturday morning). Rennes offers a great day out with wonderful restaurants, superb architecture, chic shopping and good museums.